Nathaniel Wyeth’s American Dream: Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River

‘Heading West’: Wyeth’s Journey and Historical Context:

19^th Century America was a period in which many Americans became infatuated with the idea of the ‘West’. The period was dominated by exploration, wealth, the settling of ‘new’ land and the ‘taming of the uncivilized frontier’ (The Spaghetti West. DVD. Dir: David Gregory (2007; Independent Film Channel, 2005). Since then the idea or concept of the ‘West’ has become engrained into the American ‘consciousness’ and has helped develop the term, ‘the American Dream.’    

John K. Townshend’s, ‘Townsend's Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River’ exemplifies these themes of exploration, wealth and the American Dream. The Narrative chronicles the 1834 journey of Boston Inventor, businessmen man and mountain man Nathaniel Wyeth. An introduction to Townshend’s book briefly describes the adventure of Wyeth and his men. (https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th021_0107_0370/?sp=7) The introduction explains that the aim of Wyeth’s trip is to set up ‘trading posts’ in the area ‘beyond the Rocky Mountains’. The Journey begins in the East, in St Louis, Missouri. In St Louis, the men prepare for their journey before they head for the areas ‘beyond the Rocky Mountains’.

Townshend’s Narrative and the Writings of Adams and Cullen:

Townshend narrative and the concept of the ‘American Dream’ can be assessed through James Truslow Adams ‘The Epic of America (1931)’ and Jim Cullen’s ‘The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped A Nation (2004). These two works aim to pinpoint what the American dream is, how it developed and particularly with Adams work, how the Dream is multivalent. Firstly, the way Townshend describes Wyeth can be analysed in terms of Adam’s and Cullen’s work. Townsend asserts that Captain Wyeth, ‘appears admirably calculated to gain the good will, and ensure the obedience of such a company, and adopts the only possible mode of accomplishing his end.’ Townshend description of Wyeth suggests that he is a man that would stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. Wyeth’s description can be linked with Adams work, as he can be seen as being ‘innately capable’ in terms of achieving his goals, and that he would put the effort into achieving his dream. . Furthermore, Townshend describes the other men as possessing ‘a strong and indomitable spirit which will never succumb to authority, and will only be conciliated by kindness and familiarity. I confess I admire this spirit. It is noble; it is free and characteristic’. This ‘spirit’ of optimism, of ‘kindness’, ‘familiarity’ and ‘free(dom)’ can be related to what Adam’s states about the dream, and how it is a dream of ‘social order’, which includes togetherness and  how men (and women) together shall succeed as long as they have the ‘ability’ to do so. Additionally, Townshend’s narrative shows how the ‘American Dream’ is, as Adams asserts, ‘omnipresent’. As the expedition happened before the term ‘American Dream’ was ever coined, it demonstrates how the ‘Dream’ has been dominant or ‘omnipresent’ throughout history.

Townsend, John Kirk, and Reuben Gold Thwaites. Townsend's Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River. [Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1905] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/06001820/. (Accessed January 20, 2017.)